Inquiry urged for welfare benefits system

Latest glitch involves possible $98 million in overpayments

April M. Washington, Rocky Mountain News

Published December 27, 2006 at midnight

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Two state lawmakers called Tuesday for an investigation into Colorado's troubled welfare benefits system, in which the latest glitch is a suspected $98 million of overpayments.

The lawmakers, both Democrats, said they will hold public hearings during the upcoming session.

They said they will push for an independent audit to determine why the Colorado Benefits Management System is still riddled with problems, leaving some needy Coloradans without public assistance and counties potentially on the hook for millions of accidental overpayments.

"I think it's outrageous that we haven't gotten this system fixed and we've left the counties that have to administer it exposed," said Rep. Anne McGihon, D-Denver. "We need someone to come in and do an internal audit and tell us what it's going to costs to fix this . . . thing."

Meanwhile, Sen. Bob Hagedorn, D-Aurora, is questioning the timing of the former CBMS director's resignation. Dr. John Witwer resigned last month, saying that a new ethics amendment made it too difficult for him to continue.

But Hagedorn said he wonders if the resignation has more to do with the estimated $98 million of overpayments and other issues plaguing the CBMS system.

"The question is why did he really resign?" Hagedorn said. "The reason he gave is not a valid reason.

"After all the problems I'm hearing about CBMS from the counties, I can understand why the people who are associated with it would want to get out of Dodge. The simple fact is that CBMS is not working, despite the millions of dollars the state has put into it."

Witwer disputed such assertions Tuesday, saying he hopes that lawmakers aren't using issues surrounding CBMS as "a political football."

He said he has worked closely with county human service staffs to address a vast majority of problems surrounding CBMS.

The consensus among most counties, Witwer said, is that the CBMS program is working and meeting the needs of tens of thousands of Colorado's poor residents.

"Time and time again, my job was to identify the problems and try to fix them," Witwer said. "It's easy to criticize. But what's important is that good people on both the county and state side stepped forward and worked hard to improve the system."

Witwer, a former state lawmaker, was tapped by GOP Gov. Bill Owens last year to help straighten out the embattled CBMS system.

The Evergreen Republican resigned his position Nov. 30, saying that he felt he no longer could oversee CBMS without violating a provision in the new ethics amendment, which bans lawmakers and state officials from working as lobbyists two years after leaving office.

In his role as director of CBMS, Witwer essentially had to lobby the legislature for the millions of dollars needed during the past year to get the embattled CBMS computer system up and running.

Hagedorn and supporters of Amendment 41 said that it is not retroactive and would not have applied to Witwer.

The push for an investigation comes days after a bipartisan committee from Colorado Counties Inc. recently estimated that the welfare computer system is generating an average of 11,300 notices of overpayments to clients each month.

The $222.7 million computer system was designed to replace a 25- year-old system and to consolidate several programs that oversee benefit programs such as food stamps, Medicaid and Temporary Aid to Needy Families.

Hagedorn and McGihon said they are worried that Democrat Gov.- elect Bill Ritter's administration is being strapped with a number of troubled large-scale computer conversions and systems.

Dan Hopkins, spokesman for Owens, said that the state would welcome public hearings, contending that the Owens administration has taken decisive steps to improve CBMS.

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